NOVEL EXPERIMENT IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 8

NOVEL EXPERIMENT IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

THE MIDDLE EAST

[BU

JOSEPH C. HARSCH

in the “Christian Science Monitor-J

.[Reprinted by Arrangement]

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’s first novel experiment in American foreign policy change wi be located not in the Far in Palestine, where Jews and Araos still patrol barbed wire <( a"mitigated by a Pe?«= setUement, al thouch fighting ended four years ago. The Truman administrations policy toward this area partially favours* the new Jewish State of Israel In effect Truman policy treated Israel Megual in importance to the surrouna s Arab States, Syria, Lebanon, Hasne mite Kingdom of Jordan, an* The Dulles policy is to withdraw any special consideration accorded Israel and to regard it »s deserving no more consideration than any one other coun try in the area. , The first practical result of tbe new policy has been a r ® fu , s . al , the Russian breach of d JP l(^ a ££ Illations with Israel as a reason cording to Israel as many guns, tanks and planes as to all the surrounding Arab countries together. Israel tended that the Russian br ® ach ot S; posed a moral obligation on anti-Communist countries to. assure tne defences of Israel by giving it the means at hand to defend itself against its Arab neighbours. No Fundamental Change The purpose behind the new Middle East policy does not, however, represent any fundamental, long-rang~ change. The main American purpose in the whole area is, as it was to keep the Russians out of the oil fields of Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia and away from the Suez Canal. The first requirement toward this eno. is that the Middle East governments achieve and maintain their internal security. The second requirement is that the Middle East governments be more friendly to the West than to Russia. The problem would be simpler were there no Jewish State in Palestine. However, there is such a Jewish State,and its existence is a source of tension in the whole area. The Russians are doing their utmost to capitalise on this tension. The Truman policies . toward the area did not spring from any argument that support of Israel would be in the end the most promising way of keeping Russia out of the Middle East. The State Department favoured the Arabs during the Palestine war and was overruled time and again by the White House for domestic political reasons. However, a policy which had its origin in domestic politics was supported by the hope that in the long run the modern, energetic State of Israel, with its many friends around

the world, would be a sounder bask tor Middle East policy than weaker, less modern Arab States. Mr Dulles apparently has decided now to play America’s diplomatic hand another way. The change does not assume that there is any potential military strength in the Arab states which could be mobilised, like the South Koreans, for greater service in holding back the Russian tide. How. ever, the change does assume, pe r haps naively, that backtracking m sunport of Israel will make possible arrangements with the Arab states Which will strengthen their internal security and make military bises available to the West in event of war. An Interesting Experiment It will be extremely interesting to see how the experiment works out It will involve giving sufficient arms to the Arab governments to assure their internal security, against their own poverty-stricken mobs, in return for base rights in time of war. If ft works out, there will be a new defence community organised for the Middle East, in which British and American forces will provide the "mobile strategic reserve.” The policy will succeed or fail depending on whether it does lead to a regional defence agreement. As so frequently happens, there are now tiny glimmerings of evidence that British policy is tending to flow in a contrary direction to American policy At the time when the Truman Admin, istration . was pro-Israel, the British were pro-Arab. Now that American policy is swinging away from its proIsrael inclination, the British begin to act as though they thought the old Truman rationalisation possessed real validity. British policy tends always to accept factual situations. Israel is a livelv and vigorous fact. The Arab states may be lively, but still have to show evidence of great vigour. In miniature this repeats the story of British and American policies to. ward the Far East. The British did their best to prevent the emergence of China as a major power at a time when building China was a keystone of President Roosevelt's Far East policies. Then, when China did become a power, under the Communists, America turned against China while Britain gave it immediate diplomatic recognition. The present situation in the Middle East Is that America, which supported the rise of Israel, is wooing the Arabi, while Britain, which did its utmost to prevent the rise of Israel, is leaning increasingly toward friendship with Israel. as the base of British policy in the Eastern Mediterranean.